


Bent, Not Broke

by avienexjel



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Depression, Emotional Hurt, F/M, M/M, Suicidal Thoughts, There Is A Lot of Dying, Tony Angst, it's been ten years and almost everyone i love is dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 18:15:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8456764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avienexjel/pseuds/avienexjel
Summary: (I am a definite Team Tony person, but I wanted to write a sad fanfic that really wrecks both sides instead of just Team Cap, so...don't kill me XD I legit hate my own fanfic but I had to write it anyway)Tony Stark supposedly dies in Siberia.  But ten years later, Steve Rogers just so happens to be driving down the road to visit the death site when he sees Tony stumbling in front of him...Steve, Tony's worst nightmare...





	

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When Tony looks up, all he can see is blue eyes and a handsome nose and a clenched jaw. Steve doesn't look angry, only determined as he holds the shield up in gloved hands. The supersoldier had ripped Tony's faceplate off seconds before, and who knows, maybe Steve finds a perverse sort of glee in watching the man and not the suit die. After all, without the suit, what was he? A fuck-up, a loser, a pretend hero that nobody ever really wanted saving them. There is a sort of cold resolve in that blue gaze, and Tony closes his eyes. Somewhere deep inside of him, he is glad that Steve is finally going to kill him. _I'm sorry, Yinsen...you told me not to waste my life but I guess I screwed everything up again anyway..._ Tony thinks that Steve may have hesitated before the shield comes smashing down into the suit. The arc reactor sparks, and then begins to flicker. Steve doesn't waste time slotting the edge neatly back into the gash in the Iron Man suit, and brings the shield down again, and again, and again. Tony can feel his ribs splintering, breaking, and he can't focus on anything but the pain.

_Just let me die already_

_Please_

"I'm sorry, Tony," is what Steve whispers before the shield whips down for the very last time. "But Bucky is too important to me."

"Guess Tony Stark is never important enough for anybody," the engineer laughs hoarsely as Steve gets up and starts to walk away. He doesn't think Steve hears him. He raises his voice, but even as he shouts he knows that he's just tired, too tired to be angry anymore. "You don't deserve that shield! My father made it!"

Steve stops and glances back once before dropping the shield to the ground. "You can have it, Stark." Then he grips the former Winter Soldier firmly on the shoulder and leads him out of the compound. Everything is suddenly so much colder, so much more lonely, Tony thinks as he looks around. "FRI?" His voice cracks embarrassingly and he tries again. "FRIDAY." There is no response, only the dull grey arc reactor staring up at him from his mangled metal chest. A sob erupts from his mouth and he clenches his teeth. "Stark men are made of iron." Tony struggles to sit up, stifling his gasps as his ribs shift under his skin. He's pretty sure Steve's vibranium shield broke at least four of his ribs, and his head is spinning. The iron pressed against his clothes is wet, and he doesn't doubt that the shield also cut into his abdomen. Tony crawls over to the stone pillars and rests his back against them, struggling to strip the suit from his body. It's dead now and Tony would rather freeze to death in his own clothing than in a suit that knows its been beaten. He pushes the metal scraps into a pile and coughs blood onto the floor, flinching as his palms make contact with the icy ground. "F-FRIDAY," he mumbles as his eyes finally slide shut. He curls up in a ball to protect his bloodied stomach and ribs with the cold trembling inside him.

***

Tony Stark has been dead for ten years, and nobody can forget about him. But that doesn't stop the world from moving on despite the Iron Man Day that a redhead named Pepper Potts petitioned for, specifically for him. After five months, the flowers sent in from countries around the world finally stop coming, and the news eventually dies down within half a year. "Captain America killed Iron Man." Steve Rogers is finally called back after two years of hiding because the world needs superheroes, even though popular public opinion still calls the supersoldier a villain. Captain America is finally forced to sign the Accords as are the rest of the Avengers due to threats from one hundred and seventeen countries as well as several SHIELD, FBI, and CIA warnings. And eventually, Pepper Potts marries Happy Hogan and James Rhodes dies in Siberia after visiting Tony Stark's place of death. Funny how it happens, how Rhodey is grieving too hard, even then, to drive straight, even with the sleek metal legs that Tony had scratched out the blueprints for before Steve killed him. And crashes into a tree on his way back (just like Howard). Funniest thing is, this time nobody had to gun his wheels, Rhodey dies by himself.

Later on, Pepper Potts also bans everyone from Stark Tower, and keeps Tony's workshop locked up. After Pepper and Happy both die in a Stark Tower bombing, the remnants of FRIDAY blow up the workshop, demolishing the Iron Man suits forever. Nobody but Sir, she decides, will ever get to touch the inventions of a man beyond his time. Coulson is alive, and takes over what meager bits of SHIELD is left. Fury dies in the battle between HYDRA and the rest of the world, and so does the fifteen year old Spider kid that Tony liked. Clint Barton returns to his farm only to get rejected by his wife and three months later, Laura Barton's lawyer is shoving divorce papers at him. He doesn't get joint custody. Everything is getting better now, except for the ones who knew Tony Stark. For Tony Stark's friends or former friends, their lives are falling apart. But Tony is dead, and after a year even Clint finds it hard to hate the man in the iron suit any more than he hates himself. The world is silent, and lets the Avengers defeat their enemies for them. The Accords keep the superheroes in line. Turns out, Wanda Maximoff thinks bitterly later on, that Stark was right.

But really, nothing matters anymore, because they all ripped themselves apart in the end.  Just like Banner had said when they all first met--"We're, we're a time bomb."

No one from the dead can come back, anyway.

Ten years later, Tony Stark wakes up, all alone like when he died, and everything is different. Firstly, he wakes up on dirt instead of concrete. The next thing he notices is that he doesn't feel any pain, despite the injuries on his stomach and chest, and thirdly--he's alive. He's fucking alive. Tony scrambles back, noticing a mound of long-rotted flowers next to him. There are other flowers there too, but they've joined with the soil and they are no longer easy to tell what they are. They're sunflowers, the type that Tony loves. It looks out of place on the frozen, hard-packed brown, framed by grey skies and streaky white clouds.

"Shit," Tony says, standing. How long has he been lying here, unconscious? What's happened, where's the suit, fuck, the suit...if SHIELD has gotten their hands on his stuff, Tony will kill Fury. Stumbling down, he makes his way over to the road and starts walking, stuffing his hands in his pockets. There's a sinking feeling in his gut when he looks up only to see that there are no helicopters, no Vision in the sky with his probing, searching eyes. Is he this forgettable that no one bothered to look for him? It must have been four hours now. There's something really wrong, Tony thinks as he continues down the road. For one, there are no more trees when he remembers there being a lot of them before. And two...he's not bleeding anymore, he's not hurting physically, the only thing in pain now is his mind. "What..."

Suddenly, he catches sight of a car veering down the pitted road heading straight towards him, and Tony quickly moves out of the way, to the side. But right as the car passes him, he hears a screech and turns to see a large blonde man getting out of the car. "Shit." He backs away only to trip over his own feet and flails. The blonde man stares, and holy fuck, those blue eyes are so damn familiar. The blonde man--the blonde supersoldier--opens his mouth, choking on his words as they come out. "T...T-Tony?"

"What the fuck are you doing here again, _Rogers_ ," Tony demands, forgetting all the other weird shit that has happened to him since he woke up to find himself surrounded by rotted flowers and frost-covered dirt.  "You left me to die.  I almost did die."

"Tony..."  Steve seems at a loss for words.  "Tony..."

"Why do you keep fucking saying my name," Tony snaps, moving to the side.  "Get out of my way before I--before I--"  He curses silently when his genius brain finally catches up and reminds him that his suit is no longer there, probably dragged away by some animal or something.  (Because he doubts SHIELD would steal his suit and leave him bleeding out, no matter how ridiculous some of them are.)  

"You're alive," Steve says finally, still staring.

"No thanks to you," Tony snarls, prepared to make a break for it if Steve comes any closer.  He can still see the shield bearing down on him, that sickening crunch of metal  _onetwothree..._

"This isn't possible," the supersoldier says, still looking horrified.  "I...Tony, where have you been all this time?  People were searching for years, you know, and--"

"Hold up, what do you mean,  _all this time?"_ Tony says, everything getting even more confusing than before.  "I was only unconscious for a couple hours, what the  _hell_ is going on, Rogers!"

"Stevie?  You okay?"  Suddenly, a shaggy dark head pops out as the passenger door of the car opens.  "What's going on with you and that hitchhiker--"

Tony takes one look and falls to his knees, retching on the side of the road.  Nonono, it can't be, not this, not this.  What did Tony ever do to deserve this?  He knows he's been a terrible, slimy person in his lifetime, but he'd been trying to make up for it.  He'd been trying, so hard.  But he doesn't deserve a break because even God or whomever is watching him knows that he's too worthless to ever get the good end of the stick.  His fingers scratch at the gritty pavement feebly.  First Steve, and now...his life is a nightmare come true.  Because standing in front of him, with a weird expression on his face, is none other than a healthy and hardy version of Bucky Barnes.


End file.
